"I do not agree that all leaders are born with leadership qualities. Leaders can be made and not only leaders have to create followers, but in today’s time leaders also have to create other leaders. Corporate leaders can be groomed by learning and development"
A 2017 Gartner survey shows that the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in India is transitioning from delivery executive to business executive, from controlling cost and engineering processes, to driving revenue and exploiting data. A Global Delivery Executive, Entrepreneur, Thought Leader, Management and Leadership Guru, BI & Advanced Analytics and Data Security and Privacy Expert, Shantanu Bhamare, CIO, Systango (HQ London, UK), who has over 25 years of experience working in the IT industry, says that the role of CIO has become a hot cake in the industry today, but at present there are very few CIOs in India. In an exclusive interview with Corporate Citizen, Bhamare talks about the CIO role and responsibilities and what does it take to keep oneself ahead in this disruptive technology and information driven world
Most of the companies I worked for were USA MNCs and few Indian MNCs—there was a huge difference in the work culture. For example, IBM believes in delivery on time and quality, they also give you freedom to devise a strategy and lead from front; they do not see how many hours you have put in the company, there is no recording of in-out timekeeping in IBM—they give a card just to open the door. IBM is also a performance, personal development and learning organization, they do not believe in recording your work times. But in Indian companies, if I am 30 minutes late to work or leave early, I got to regularize my attendance by my manager, even if I am at a senior level. In the US, MNCs see that the work is delivered and they are not bothered about when you are coming in and going out from work—for them it does not matter. In Indian MNCs, there is a culture of policing and micromanaging the employees, not giving them freedom to devise a strategy and execute.
Another example I can give is, let’s say your hobby is painting—if you are working abroad, you are allowed to take a sabbatical for 4-6 months and come back and join work after the break. Here in India, it will be considered as a career break—no one will take you back in the workforce and so many questions will be asked by a recruiter about the break and since work done in sabbatical period is not related to your profession, it’s 100% break for them. Another example is, let’s say some student or professional has very good experience and is doing something innovative with technology, but not having any educational certificate or a degree—such a student is given an opportunity to work in companies abroad. In India, you will rarely find such examples. But, in my experience, abroad, especially in the West, it is exactly opposite—they see your knowledge and not your certificate.
You got to keep learning and learning should never stop till you die. It is not so that if you are for 20- 25 years in an industry, you don’t have to learn anything. You got to give some time for learning new technologies and personal development— even though I am working in the corporate world, I have to spend couple of hours, checking what is happening in the world, what new technologies are coming. Either learn yourself or attend some courses or conferences. In my case, I believe in self learning. When I was working with Data pro, it was all Microsoft technology. When I joined Selectica, it was all about Java—I did not attend any class in Java, I learnt myself. I am a quick learner, but that does not mean every person will be like me. So, either you learn yourself or you attend classes or conferences—any method you chose, but you got to learn. However, you have to balance between your professional working time, personal time and time to learn new technologies and trends.
I completed my academic degree of Bachelor of Engineering (BE) in Computer Science from College of Engineering Pune (COEP), in 1994 and then I did a Post Graduate Diploma in Advanced Computing from C-DAC, Pune in 1996. I also did Mobile Computing from IIT-Bombay in 2006 and went on for my MBA in IT and Finance from IIBM Pune in 2008. Recently I have done Project Management Institute (PMI) Leadership Institute Master Class (LIMC), from Pennsylvania, USA in 2013. At that time I was the sole representative from India to do this master class course and our faculties where from Harvard University. So, I can very much say that I have done Global Leadership Master Class from Harvard.
"You got to keep learning and learning should never stop. It is not so that if you are for 20-25 years in an industry, you don’t have to learn anything. You got to give some time for learning new technologies and personal development"
I started my career in the 1996 as a product developer with Datapro Infoworld in Pune, which had small software division of about 25 people developing customized applications for various industry sectors and there main business was into trainings. It was my idea as to why not develop a product out of customized solutions, which you can sell to particular segment. Instead of developing customized solutions for every customer, I thought why not productize it and sell it to Oil & Gas Industry, Manufacturing, etc. My idea was liked by the Software Division Head and we started the product development. This product went on to be exhibited in a Microsoft Conference in Seattle, USA.
Then I moved to Selectica, in US, which was again a product development company. I was working in their engineering team. There I was working on couple of products like Selectica Pricer, Selectica Workflow, Selectica Contract Management. I have a co-inventor patent registered on my name for Selectica Pricer, in US. It is a product which solves complex pricing algorithms and problems. Pricing becomes complex when there is tiered pricing, bundling, mandatory items, optimal items, upsell, cross-sell, etc. Selectica Pricer product is used by companies like IBM, CISCO, BMW, GE Health Care, Abbott, MCI, Accenture, Fujitsu, etc.—because their pricing problems are that complex. Why it becomes complex, because these companies have number of products, many options, permeations and combinations and that is the reason it becomes complex to sell it. As pricing becomes a complex issue, Selectica Pricer was designed to solve these issues.
After Selectica, I joined Tech Mahindra, wherein I was working for British Telecom project. It was an eCommerce project and they required help to migrate from BEA Weblogic Server to Open Source OFBiz, because nowadays every company is moving towards open source, to save on licensing fee. So, obviously these are Open Source frameworks for ecommerce and it was me who understood the functionality and helped them migrate from Weblogic Server to Open Source, providing an ecommerce functionality.
After that I joined IBM, in Pune, as Deputy General Manager, in their Application Innovation Services (AIS) department. What AIS really means is that you are understanding existing applications of clients and providing them innovative solutions. While at IBM, I was working on various different projects, in different domains, in different countries.
After six years I left IBM and joined TIBCO Software, in Pune, which is into niche market of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). Through TIBCO I managed Reliance Jio account for 4G Program. After which I joined Xpanxion International as an Associate Vice President- Software Services. My CIO role started with the company called Netcore Solutions. My job was to basically take care of a project which included integrating all the software’s and tools of NetCore, which will give right information, at right time to right people, along with personal security, physical security, data security and privacy, as the role and responsibility of a CIO. To manage infrastructure, build strong relationship with existing customers, media interviews, managing internal and external communications and looking for new accounts, is also the role of a CIO.
"If you change job every 2-3 years you get benefit of salary increment and also knowledge increment, you work on different technologies, different domain, you get to know new processes, new culture, etc."
After Netcore, I joined Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE), as a Director Communication & Media Solutions. By communication I mean with reference to telecom, which is not just about phone calls and SMS anymore, they have also got various apps, which is also related to communication.
Recently, this year in August 2018, I joined Systango, as CIO. It is headquartered in London, UK. They have a development center in Indore, in India, where I work. As a CIO my job is to build strong relationship with existing clients, delivery oversight, data security and privacy.
Earlier, people were talking about Business Intelligence (BI) and Advanced Analytics, but now Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is taking shape worldwide. For example, Intelligent Chatbots, Driver less Cars, Drones, and other areas like Internet of Things (IOT), folded devices, etc. You will see that in near future, human’s will be embedded human— there will be chips embedded say in various parts of their body, to make them superhuman. It is no more fiction, it is soon coming to reality.
If someone is not updating, learning, reskilling for new technologies and the advances that are coming soon, they may become obsolete and end up jobless. Why so many layoffs are happening here in IT companies, it is because of automation and because those in jobs are not learning new technologies. They are still working in old technologies, when technology is changing at fast pace.
You got to put 7-8 years in any PMI Chapter, at a leadership level. I was VP of the PMI Pune chapter, under my leadership PMI Pune won the best chapter in the world award in category II, as well as I got awarded by PMI USA as a “Best Volunteer Leader Of The Year 2008-Asia Pacific Region” at Denver, Colorado, USA, in October 2008. So, they see who are the good leaders from PMI chapters from all over the world and select only 20 leaders, and I was selected from India. Meetings happened in different continents of the world. I graduated in 2013.
PMI’s Leadership Institute Master Class (LIMC) is a yearlong initiative that provides intensive training, development and support for a limited group of volunteer leaders who meet or exceed the learning level of the experienced volunteer leader.
There are lot of arguments and debates on this topic. I do not agree that all leaders are born with leadership qualities. Leaders can be made and not only leaders have to create followers, but in today’s time, leaders also have to create other leaders. Corporate leaders can be groomed by learning and development.
Leadership crunch is definitely there in India. As a Leader you got to be visionary, take risks, lead from the front, lead by example, and these are the qualities which are missing.
Certainly, there is a difference between these two generations. Earlier people were more loyal to the company, like in my case I was with Datapro (4 years), Selectica (5 years), IBM (6 years). But, the new generation, they want to join a new company every year—it is good and bad also. It is good to do job hopping, but not in one year. It should be at least 2-3 years in start of the career and there is a reason to it. If you change job every 2-3 years you get benefit of salary increment and also knowledge increment, you work on different technologies, different domain, you get to know new processes, new culture, etc. However, I would not suggest any fresher, spend a long time, say more than three years in their first company. If I spend 5-6 years in first company, then I will have only that company’s knowledge and will only know processes of that company. But, if I join a new company after 2-3 years, I will learn new processes, new technologies, new domain, will work in new environment and there will also be monetary benefit. So, one should join new company after 2-3 years, in their initial career stage and later as you get senior anyway the number of options become less. At the beginning of your career, you have many options, which is the reason why fresher’s do job-hopping.
The role of CIO got introduced into the industry in the last ten years and started first in the western countries. As for why there was the need—data security and privacy, being compliant to various standards like The International Standard for Service Management (ISO 20K), Information security standard (ISO 27K), and so on, which is a huge concern in IT industry in recent times and that is the reason you need CIO to manage these compliances and acts. The CIO role has become a hot cake in the industry now. There are many associations—I am member of CIOs of India, CIO Forum, CIO Club and CxO Club. However, there are very few CIOs in India, they are learning how to become a CIO and how to get that knowledge and skill.
In short CIO takes care of the data security and privacy, compliance and infrastructure part and CTO takes care of the technology up gradation part. If you are a technology company, CTO’s job is to look out for what technologies are coming in the market and roll-out those technologies in the product and services of that company. Being a CIO, my job is also, building strong relationship with existing customers, working with the vendors and improve bottom-line of the company. CIO is also responsible for the maintaining infrastructure of the company. Like in our case, we have lot of servers—how we can maintain those servers and ensure there is a near to no downtime, because in IT, downtime is not acceptable by clients and that is also the job of a CIO.
Internet of Things (IoT) started in India, in the last five years and is used in many industries. Basically, IoT means deployment of sensors on which you want to collect data or track—some examples of IoT are Industrial Automation, Smart Home, Smart City, Traffic monitoring, Health monitoring, Security, Transport and Logistics, Daily life and domotics. Examples of AI or Machine Learning are Chatbot, driverless cars, drones, image recognition, sound recognition, retina recognition automating repetitive work, etc.
In the USA the five human jobs that are replaced by AI are, courier jobs by delivery drones, cooks job by Robotic Kitchen (Moley), cashiers by AI Shopping Tech (Amazon Go), Customer Service Representatives by ChatBots, and drivers by Self Driving Technology.
By Rajesh Rao
